Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Slide 1
JOURNALISTS’ PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY A Resource to Cope with Change in the Industry?
Stephanie Grubenmann
Slide 2
Journalists in a Changeable Environment New Requirements, Role Stress and Overwork
“How does journalists’ professional iden=ty influence their percep=on and interpreta(on of the changes in their profession?" “Does journalists’ professional iden=ty serve as a resource that allows them to cope with far-‐reaching change in their profession?”
Slide 3
ContribuBon of the Study Professional Iden=ty, Reciprocal Interac=on, Methodical Contribu=on
(1) I introduce social iden?ty theory1 – specifically the concept of professional idenBty – as a complementary approach to examine journalis?c role concep?on.
(2) Research the “reciprocal interacBon”2 between the professional role concep?on and the changes in the tasks, rela?onships, and areas of responsibility.
(3) Building a bridge between the exisBng quanBtaBve and qualitaBve approaches by exploring role percep?on’s influence on a dependent variable (an approach known from quan?ta?ve studies in the field) by means of a qualita?ve study.
1 (SIT; Tajfel and Turner 1986) 2 (Yuthas, Dillard, and Rogers 2004, 231)
Slide 4
Professional IdenBty Origin and State of Research
• Origin: social iden?ty theory1 and the related self-‐categoriza?on theory2 • Individual level: personal iden?ty and (several) social iden??es • Social iden??es o_en manifest themselves in professions and occupa?ons. The Changing Nature of Professions • Widely studied in the past years: strong focus on health care1
Journalism, affected by comparable developments, not been considered yet2 • Employees not as vic?ms of change processes, but as social agents capable of transforming
structures through their choices and ac?ons3,4
• Exis?ng insights4:
– Professionals use role scripts and rewrite them: Developing new script and contribuBng to profession’s changing iden?ty.
– new salient in-‐groups à a typical consequence of change – Forma?on of smaller sub-‐groups
1 (Tajfel 1978; Tajfel 1981; Turner 1975; Turner 1982; Tajfel and Turner 1986) 2 (Turner et al. 1987)
3 (Hotho 2008) 4 (Whiington 1994; Forrester 2000; Yuthas, Dillard, and Rogers 2004)
Slide 5
Literature Review Professional Role Concepts in Journalism Studies
Qualita?ve Approaches
Quan?ta?ve Approaches
(1) drama?c change on the micro level (2) forma?on of new forms of journalism on a meta level (3) change in the journalis?c role concep?on and professional iden?ty on a macro level
• Long tradi?on1: ambi?ons, values, and norms • Assump?on: linear rela?onship between role concep?on and role enactment2 • Advantages: interna?onal comparability & benchmarking with other professional cultures • Weakness: only integrate predetermined role elements
1 (Willnat and Weaver 2013) 2 (Tandoc, Hellmueller, and Vos 2012)
Slide 6
Our Study Swiss Daily Newspaper, Summer 2013
• Swiss daily newspaper • 226 journalists & producers (such as art directors, photographers, and the video team) • Summer 2013: 26 semi-‐structured interviews • Digital (sub)brand founded in 1997 with “very autonomous” online team (15 journalists)
2012: convergence (online journalists à into the exis?ng print departments)
Interviews: • Mo?va?on for journalism • Percep?on of current changes • Outlook
By studying the interviewees’ use of professional role scripts ― whether tradi?onal, established versions, or divergent, emerging forms ― I tried to iden?fy journalists’ underlying professional iden?ty and its interplay with their interpretaBons of ongoing change.
Slide 7
Results The Arts Group & The CraU Group
• 11 representa?ves • Only 1 former online journalist • ar?st or representa?ves of an
intellectual elite • work, as an end in itself • meet the ar?st’s personal demands
or those of the epistemic community rather than those of a democra?c standard
The Arts Group The Cra_ Group
• 15 representa?ves • balanced mix between former online and
print journalists • Hands on, problem-‐ and solu?on-‐oriented • Service journalism
Based on the professional scripts to which the journalists referred in their argumenta?on, we differen?ate between two groups, which we call “the arts group” and “the craU group.”
Slide 8
The Arts Group Fear of Status Degrada=on
3 Sources of journalists’ self-‐enhancement: (1) Conserva?ve journalis?c role concepts
(2) Dossier competences: topic-‐specific experts
(3) Threat scenario: They relate their status to the value dimension quality and link it to the newspaper brand. Current changes, or specific elements of it, endanger these assets (i.e. journalists’ status, quality journalism, the newspaper brand).
“Yes, that’s actually a good ques=on … to what degree do we want to engage in a dialog with our readers… [repea=ng the ques=on]? Don’t we employ people for this kind of task? Social media managers…?
(interviewee 23, line 924f.)
Slide 9
The Arts Group Fear of Status Degrada=on
Assets Threads
status
brand quality outgroup connect
dis?nguish from
lack of quality
speed
connect
Slide 10
The Arts Group Fear of Status Degrada=on
4 Strategies of self-‐enhancement and degradaBon: (1) Acceptance procedure (2) Personal privileges (3) Personal ambi?ons, a certain way of working
(4) Linking personal status with the brand’s status to emphasize superiority
“There is awareness [among editorial managers] that journalists require a certain level of contempla=on to write good texts, par=cularly for the Feuilleton.”
(interviewee 4, line 134)
“I have my quality standard and I want to meet it. If my work no longer meets this standard, I will become unmanageable. Then I might even refuse to obey orders or something.”
(interviewee 6, line 314f.)
Slide 11
The CraQ Group Lack of Shared Reference Points
• Feel of minor value and s?ll experience the two-‐?er culture of pre-‐convergence ?mes.
• Do not perceive as a social unit within the newsroom. The previous online team s?ll cons?tutes former online journalists’ primary in-‐group.
• Lack shared reference points and scripts (we find some reference to speed, but not persuasively).
• No shared out-‐group for iden?ty construc?on. • For social comparison, they admiringly refer to interna?onal examples of best prac?ce and
worthwhile standards of online coverage.
• Unifying: Their fundamental cri?que of the internal processes, structures, and infrastructure as essen?al resources for conduc?ng online journalism.
Slide 12
Conclusion
Results shows us the “reciprocal interac?on” between journalists’ ac?vi?es on a micro level and the journalis?c role concept on a macro level. Ø Flexibility of (tradi?onal) role scripts and the possibility to interpret change as being
beneficial.
Ø ElasBcity of the profession, which provides scope for personal, adapted role concepts by building on shared values and rou?nes.
Ø The profession’s tolerance Ø interplay between values, rou?nes, role concepts, and scripts make professional iden?ty a
resource to help cope with change and uncertainty.
Slide 13
Discussion and Outlook
CraU group’s service orientaBon: • Iden?ty forma?on seems to s?ll be developing: Emergence of adapted scripts • Guido Keel (2011): service-‐oriented journalis?c self-‐concept in young Swiss professionals • Cory Haik (2013): adap?ve journalism • Interes?ng: some of the arts group representa?ves also showed evidence of a greater service
orienta?on Forma?on of smaller salient sub-‐groups among representa?ves of the arts group: • Typical consequence of change • Dis?nc?ve department focus might be hindering for cross-‐departmental teamwork (“wicked
problems” (Rosen 2012), Quartz)?! First asempt to introduce qualita?ve approach based on the professional iden?ty concept: • Extend research to other forms of journalism (e.g. weekly, free commuter papers, magazines) • Research the influence of journalists’ professional iden?ty on other aspects of their work (e.g.
user interac?on, or preferred modes of working) by applying a qualita?ve approach.
